"Advisory bike Lanes" in the us?
joeybab3 opened this issue · comments
I was mapping bike lanes and realized that with the last update there is no longer the ability to mark a section of road as having dashed/advisory bike lanes.
I saw the issues opened about some other countries which don't have that or were confusing and it looks like you are still doing research for country specific implementations of it, wanted to add some pictures of lanes here in California in case it helps.
vs normal
Maybe I'm just misunderstanding the purpose of the dashed lane but I think it shouldn't have gone away here in the US
The first picture is just a normal car traffic line I'd say.
The first picture is just a normal car traffic line I'd say.
I'm referring to the dashed line on the left of the image, that is the part of the bike lane where cars are legally allowed to enter to complete a turn
You can see it from the other angle on the second image if you look in the distance
Yes, I referred to that as well.
The concept of advisory bike lanes do not exist in the US as far as I know. What exists are sharrows, a very similar concept but without the dashed line.
It is still a bike lane though, in most cases these are not wide enough to fit a car, this one is because the city cannibalized a traffic lane to make a bike lane with a safety cushion next to it
Should you find something in state legislation, feel free to comment here again or just create a PR.
Also pinging @1ec5 , he is also from California and interested in mapping (that).
I know they also attempted to do something closer to what I'm assuming is a proper advisory bike lane in San Diego but scrapped it: https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local/drivers-education-needed-san-diegos-new-advisory-bike-lanes/509-f85184cc-4f8f-4d33-bf98-2a1ec1a2cf49
Access Denied
Ahh region restrictions...
here's two screencaps from it
Hm! This looks very much like a 2-1 road. These are indeed tagged as "advisory" cycleways.
In which state is this and do you have a source for that? I mean, not just a picture, but an article or the legislation or some road building manual etc.
(Also, that wikipedia article is somewhat of a stub. This is a chance to contribute something to the wikipedia ^^)
Oh wait, you mentioned that they scrapped it.
So, they built it, but then un-built it? Uhh. Would love to see the report though, because in Europe these things are getting more popular (hopefully based on studies and not whim).
They were scrapped in that specific instance because drivers didn't like them... but there are several experiments ongoing with them across the US apparently: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bicycle_pedestrian/guidance/mutcd/dashed_bike_lanes.cfm
San Francisco appears to also have one
https://www.presidio.gov/presidio-trust/planning/advisory-bike-lane-in-the-presidio
Let me know if you need anything off either of those sites due to region restrictions...
Drivers didn't like them, lol 🤣
Drivers didn't like them, lol 🤣
Typical I know... To be fair the city just went and changed it one day without notifying people and these aren't exactly common here so all the people who lived on that street were up in arms
They were scrapped in that specific instance because drivers didn't like them... but there are several experiments ongoing with them across the US apparently: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bicycle_pedestrian/guidance/mutcd/dashed_bike_lanes.cfm
Interesting! So this is indeed a nation-wide (or even wider?) standard? Pinging @1ec5 again because he is also a MUTCD guru.
That FHWA article would suggest that a federal standard may be upcoming or at least in consideration
I'm referring to the dashed line on the left of the image, that is the part of the bike lane where cars are legally allowed to enter to complete a turn
These dashed lines near intersections are a national standard and incredibly common in California. I’ve been treating it as a short shared lane. Even though there isn’t a sharrow marking, cyclists do have to share the roadway with turning cars. I try to map these shared turn lanes whenever I see them, but it’s very annoying because a bunch of keys are involved (cycleway, turn:lanes, bicycle:turn:lanes, change). Thankfully, Lyft has been helping with these shared lanes as they improve coverage of cycling infrastructure in my area.
If there’s just a bike lane without a parking lane or buffer, then the resulting shared lane is only the width of a standard bike lane, forcing drivers to straddle it and the normal through lane. I guess it could be thought of as a 0.5 lane, but I don’t think it’s commonly tagged that way.
That FHWA article would suggest that a federal standard may be upcoming or at least in consideration
Not necessarily. An experiment is just that. Based on the required traffic study’s findings, FHWA may issue an interim approval, which could end up in a future edition of the MUTCD if it isn’t revoked in the meantime. Interim approvals are widespread enough to account for in our tagging schemes, but experiments are time-bound and sometimes a bit exotic, so I wouldn’t put too much emphasis on them.
Okay, given that the 2-1 roads are experimental, would you say they are common enough that streetcomplete should support them or rather wait until (if) they become approved?
This FHWA webpage lists five official experiments on dashed bike lanes. Unfortunately, the official ruling database doesn’t provide any detail on how many streets are involved in each experiment or for how long. Sometimes a traffic study involves only one street, but other times it can involve many streets to gather additional data points. I’d probably look at whether the press describes any trends around this treatment or if it’s always described as a one-off, exotic experiment. I think it’s safe to presume that an experiment is rare unless there’s evidence otherwise.
Okay thank you. So I will close this for now but also add the information from this ticket to the repo